the pond, breaking its peaceful gold surface. She hoped that the water would wash away her uncharacteristic thoughts.
19
Grey-cloaked figures surrounded the small hill where a dead tree perched. Amanda pressed herself against the white trunk, attempting to use its cover to get some relief from the downpour. The twisted leafless branches did little to shelter her already soaking body. She was cradling a small shaking child. Putting a hand to her face, she wiped away the water cascading over her eyes and gazed at the child.
Kaedin looked up at her, clutching her arm desperately. “Help me, Amanda. I’m right here. Don’t leave me again!” the small quivering voice begged.
A face materialized in the wall of grey, a face she hated. She couldn’t believe the physical need she felt to watch him die. Baal’s distorted face wore an impish grin as if he could read her thoughts. Only an Ancient can kill you. His deformed head nodded, and his smile stretched wider, revealing row upon row of sharp yellow teeth. A shiver rippled through her body as remembered words played in her mind.
‘Baal loves the sight of blood.’
“You share my enjoyment Amanda. You have blood on your hands as well. You can try to hide it, but I see the spot there.” He quoted Shakespeare as Carter’s walking corpse appeared at his side.
“Murderer!” he screamed. An explosion of sound ripped open the silence as a bright flash of light split the dead tree down the middle, tearing Kaedin from her arms.
Amanda jerked awake, knocking heads with Cole in the process. Her heart was hammering in her chest, and she sat up, cursing her mind for giving her such dreams. Was it not painful enough to leave her once? She hoped she had gotten enough rest to function. Amanda didn’t want to attempt to sleep again. The dreams were too real to brush off. She could still feel the chill on her skin where Kaedin’s cold hand had grasped her. Pulling up her sleeve showed the red outline of a little hand. Sleep was overrated anyway, she told herself though she wasn’t sure Cole would agree.
He sat up as soon as she did, heavy eyes full of confused concern. “Are you okay?” he asked through a yawn. His eyelids looked like they weighed ten pounds each, and she guessed she’d been right in assuming he wouldn’t sleep as long as Armaan was around.
“Yeah, just another bad dream,” she said, rubbing the fading red skin on her arm. “They seem so real.”
He straightened and pulled her closer to him. “Don’t worry. When all of this is over, the dreams will stop. I used to have terrible dreams but eventually they died down. Minds tend to work out all of the fears we try to suppress once we close our eyes, playing out the most painful scenarios.” Cole’s eyes fogged over for a moment. “The more terrible your nightmares, the more active your mind. We must both be geniuses.”
A muffled thud rang out as Armaan plopped himself on the end of the couch.
“Ouch! Couldn’t Shiphra have made better furniture?” he moaned, rubbing his back. “So what was this dream about? If it was a naughty dream about me, don’t say anything, just raise your eyebrows so Cole doesn’t suspect.” He paused and smiled. “Do you see how high those eyebrows are, Cole? Must have been a good one.”
“Shut up, would you? My eyebrows are this high because I’m shocked at the person Shiphra has sent to help me. Is it possible she can dislike me this much? She hasn’t even met me yet.”
“You wanted him here,” Cole said, rubbing her arm soothingly.
“Okay, you… it’s time you make me glad I kept you around. When do we leave, and where are we going?” she asked, trying to keep her voice even.
“Well, I’m hoping you’ve deduced from all of the bamboo that we’re on the Asian continent. To be more specific, we’re in eastern China.” He paused.
“She didn’t ask where we are. She asked where we are going,” Cole huffed impatiently.
“I think the two questions are closely related. If you don’t know where you are, how will you know where you are going?”
“Ever the philosopher, Armaan. Come on, tell us what’s going on here. We need to get Madgie to a real bed,” Cole said as if he were reasoning with a child.
“Okay, okay. We’re headed to Pudong, that’s a section of Shanghai. New Hovel is there, hidden in Century Park. If we can hitch a ride, we could be there in a few hours.”
Amanda didn’t know what to say. Too many thoughts rattled through her mind. Were they that close? How could someone hide a city of Healers in a park in one of the most populated cities in the world? What was Shiphra like?
“When do you think we should get moving?” Cole asked Armaan before standing up and stretching out.
“Well, we’ll want to make it to the roads as the morning commuters start into the city. Almost no one in China owned a car ten years ago. Lucky for us that’s changed,” Armaan responded.
Cole walked over to Madgie and studied her closely. “Who’s going to pull over and give us a ride? We’re foreigners carrying an unconscious woman.”
“Oh, people around here are super polite, and we’ll just look like tourist hikers that got lost and injured. I’m sure we won’t have a problem, and if we run into one, you can smack ‘em with a confusion orb. You were always good at those,” Armaan said with a smile.
“I’ve never been good at those. You just accused me of hitting you with one every time you were confused. I’m not talented, you’re just stupid,” Cole said with a slight smile dancing at the corner of his mouth.
Amanda was pleasantly surprised by how much tension had faded since last night. Cole wasn’t completely at ease, but she could feel his doubts, which had been so concrete yesterday, seemed a little unsure.
“I know it was you, Cole. You didn’t want me to be better looking than you and smarter. I understand. I would have done the same thing in your shoes.” Armaan laughed.
After they ate a terrible breakfast of bitter mushrooms and berries, Cole and Armaan went outside to scout the best way to the roads. Cole didn’t seem to mind being alone with Armaan, but he wasn’t ready to trust him alone with her. She had a sneaking feeling that Armaan was going to have a shadow everywhere he went until they reached New Hovel, but he seemed to enjoy Cole’s company too much to be annoyed.
After she gathered their belongings, she made herself comfortable next to Madgie. She looked better than she had last night. The color had returned to her cheeks, but she still wouldn’t wake up. She knew Madgie’s body just needed to rest and recover, but it was hard to be patient when Madgie seemed to know what was going on with her.
Madgie had been about to tell her why she had the mark on her hand and why she had fluffy over there following her around. Her wolf’s head turned sideways in confusion from where he lay across the room. Not sure about fluffy, huh? she asked. He shrugged his shoulders and laid his head back down, a gesture so human it made her smile.
If Madgie knew what was happening to her, then this couldn’t just be a one-time occurrence. Someone else out there had to be walking around with this mark and an invisible furry friend. How else would she have known what was happening with her? Maybe this wasn’t any more abnormal than the rest of the Healer world. There was so much that she didn’t know about her own kind. She hated herself again for abandoning her studies for two precious years.
Although she had started a rebel movement against the Ancients. She was grateful that Armaan had given her that bit of self-justification.
There wasn’t much to do in a cave with an unconscious woman. She tried meditating but was too agitated. Jumping to her feet, she started pacing around the room. She’d thought they would be headed for New Hovel already, and the waiting had her antsy. Walking was too slow, and she needed to get rid of some of her excess energy; it was making her twitchy. So she started running steady laps around the place to keep herself from going crazy.
“Trying to make the varsity track team this year?” a voice asked from behind her.
She leapt into the air, almost tripping herself and turned to face the voice. Cole and Armaan stood at the
